These three Acer Palmatum Atropurpureum set me back the grand sum of £10.50 last year at Morrison’s supermarket and the slab is my own home made effort see Slab Making.
That cost me a small bag of kiln dried sand, some quick drying cement a builder left at a friends shop and a small piece of chicken wire for reinforcement. So looking out of the kitchen window and seeing them in the autumn sun this week it has been really pleasing.
Sadly the seven Golden Dream Acers from the same source have not faired so well.Here they are earlier in the year looking great but since then three have just died on me.
Obviously as they are a group they all received the same treatment, watering,feeding etc. so why it happened I don’t know and as it has left an even number ( considered very wrong in group planting aesthetics) I will have to reduce it to three or add one to comply with basic composition rules. I think one is supposed to learn by ones mistakes but you can only do that if you discover what the mistake was.
The great advantage of these group planting at my age is that with a few modest trees of pencil thickness trunks one can make a very pleasing display in a couple of years because I am not sure that I can count on being around to my century to start a long term project.
This little sketch is what I am trying to aim at with these groups, just try and imagine a stand of trees on the skyline and create it in miniature
Over thirty years recording the rural scene in water colours
Michael Coopers Studio 